CONTENTS

Greece encourages the two communities in Cyprus to proceed with the
direct negotiation process, and we hope these negotiations will be
fruitful, Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyiannis said in statements
after a meeting she had yesterday in Washington with the US Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton.

During their forty minute meeting, Bakoyiannis and Clinton also
discussed, inter alia, the priorities of the 2009 Greek chair of the
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe`s (OSCE), the
relations between Greece and Turkey, energy issues, and the dispute
over the name of Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia`s (FYROM).

Speaking after the meeting, Bakoyiannis said, I have concluded my
meetings with the new US Administration and State Departments
officials. I had the opportunity to discuss a series of issues, such as
issues of special Greek interest such as the Greek- Turkish relations,
the relations between EU and Turkey, the Cyprus issue, and the Middle
East issue.

Governor of the Central Bank of Cyprus Athanasios Orphanides assured on
Wednesday that the global financial crisis has affected Cyprus to a
lesser extent compared to other EU countries, and that the banking
sector ``continues to be in a very good situation.``

Speaking after a meeting with President of the Republic Demetris
Christofias, Orphanides said the banking sector`s robustness had to do
with the fact that ``we continuously acknowledge how important our
accession to the Eurozone is, which has kept us safe from the
convulsions we would have had if we had kept our own currency.``

He added that a second reason was ``the supervision of our banking
sector over the past years, which in the past has been described as
firm.``

``We now see that this was exactly what it needed in order for the
banks to be in the very good situation they are today, at a time when
banks in many countries are affected and are suffering convulsions from
the crisis,`` he pointed out.

President of the Republic Demetris Christofias said on Wednesday that,
despite any obstacles, educational reform will become a reality during
his term in office.

The President was speaking at an event to award the Yiannos Kranidiotis
Pioneering Creation Prize for 2008 to Nicos Themelis for his auctorial
work, organised by the Organisation to Modernise Society (OPEK).

President Christofias said that ``for us, culture is not just another
sector of responsibility for the state`` but it holds ``a special place
in our priorities.``

He added that the government was proceeding with the implementation of
large scale cultural infrastructure and was promoting the education of
the younger generations through a courageous and decisive educational
reform.

Photograph exhibition ``Cyprus. Meeting of poetry and photography``, is
continuing its tour and was presented from February 1 to 17 at the town
hall of Engelskirche, Germany, in cooperation with the cultural
department of the municipality.

The highlight of the opening was a piano concert titled ``From the
depths of the sea`` with Cypriot pianist Athena Poullidou, performing
pieces by Mendelssohn, Schuman, Rodrigo, Economou and others.

The exhibition was set up after a pancyprian contest organised by the
Embassy of the Republic in Berlin, in cooperation with the Cyprus
Photographic Society, giving the opportunity to the public to become
acquainted with Cyprus of today, its history and mythology, its people
and poetry.

Poetry and photography blend together in the exhibition, which presents
36 photographs laced with the poems of 19 Cypriot writers. The
exhibition was opened in April 2008 in Munich, and has been presented
in Frankfurt and Cologne. Its next stop will be Bonn.